Destiny Rewritten
by Forlorn Kumquat
Summary: "Your soul for your sister's life. How can you possibly refuse?" Paige makes a choice that will change her life - and her sisters' lives - forever.
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:** This is kind of a pet project of mine. I'm not really sure where it's going to go, yet. Hope you enjoy the ride along with me.

* * *

At the time, catching the energy ball in the palm of her hand had seemed like a good idea. Actually, since said energy ball had been headed directly at Piper, who had no chance to get out of the way, it seemed like the only idea.

At the time.

Except now she was holding live electricity in her bare hand, and human beings were not meant to handle electricity. Every nerve ending in her hand and arm was on fire, and she couldn't feel anything except for the blinding pain shooting up her body, and every instinct she had was screaming at her to _throw the damn ball away, already!_ And she did.

She was aiming for the demon that had thrown it in the first place, she honestly was. But, she'd forgotten that she was fighting alongside two sisters, and not just one, and while she could see Piper out of the corner of her eye, she hadn't kept track of where Phoebe was. And she hadn't seen Phoebe as she'd levitated toward the demon, hadn't seen her until it was too late, until the energy ball had clipped her in the hip, sending her spinning through the air to crash into the banister of the stairs.

The energy ball had fizzled out after it had struck Phoebe, but it had been enough of a distraction for Piper to throw an explosive blast at the demon. It hadn't vanquished him, they needed the Power of Three for that, but it had injured the demon enough to get him to retreat, shimmering back to Hell to lick his wounds.

Leaving Paige alone with one sister that she'd inadvertently injured, and another that wanted to kill her.

Piper had already started toward Phoebe as soon as the demon had disappeared, bending over their unconscious sister and rolling her gently onto her back. Phoebe had a dark bruise on her temple where her head had struck the banister, and her eyes stayed shut, even when Piper called her name, sharply. Her chest was rising in slow, shallow breaths, and her face was too pale to be healthy.

"We need to-" Paige started to say, but Piper shot her a slashing look, her eyes hard as she glared.

"Haven't you done enough?" she snapped, and Paige took an automatic step backward at the cold fury in her older sister's voice. "Leo!" Piper snapped, her eyes on the ceiling as she dismissed Paige with little more than a thought. "Leo, get down here!"

Paige backed away from her sisters as Leo orbed into the Manor, immediately kneeling down beside Phoebe to heal her head injury. Her hand brushed against her leg as she moved, and she stifled a yell as a blinding pain shot from her hand, up her arm. Glancing down, she saw that the skin on the palm of her hand was bright red and starting to blister. For a second, her mind with blank with pain and the beginnings of panic, and then the long hours she'd spent in first aid training kicked in.

_'Water,'_ she thought, as she headed into the kitchen. She flicked the cold water on with her good hand, putting her burned hand under the spray.

Then, she had to force herself not to jerk her hand out from under the water almost immediately, as the water hitting her palm made the pain ratchet up to nearly-unbearable. She gritted her teeth, but she was unable to stop a soft whimper of pain from escaping her clenched teeth. Digging the fingers of her good hand into her leg, she watched as the water washed over the burn. Slowly, the pain receded as her hand numbed to the cold, and after about five minutes, she couldn't feel anything in her hand. An experimental poke to her wrist reassured her that the loss of feeling was due to the cold, rather than the burn.

As she kept her hand under the water, she looked around the kitchen. She knew that Piper and Phoebe kept a first aid kit somewhere in the kitchen, in case of emergencies when cooking or making potions, but they hadn't told her which cabinet it was in. And she didn't want to take her hand out from under the water long enough to look for it. She cast a quick glance toward the living room, wondering briefly if she should call someone in to help, but then Piper's furious face filled her memory, and she flinched away from the idea. She'd made her sisters made enough at her for one day; no, she could manage this on her own.

_'Think,'_ she scolded herself. _'It's just a simple first aid kit. You can do this.'_

Then, when the answer occurred to her, Paige could have slapped herself. With her new power, all she had to do was call for it. A second later, the first aid kit had materialized in her hand in a swirl of bright, white lights.

Setting the white, fairly-decent-sized box on the counter, she thumbed the latch up and flipped it open, the lid smacking against the tile with a soft pop. She dug through the cluttered kit, one-handed, and made an absent note to take time to reorganize the box so that things were easier to find. If her sisters were willing to let her back in the house, that was.

She found the roll of thin, white gauze at the bottom of the kit, along with a roll of medical tape. After she'd left her hand under the water for another minute, she shut the water off and carefully patted her hand dry with a clean towel, wincing as the towel dragged across her overly-sensitized skin despite her best efforts.

She put a folded gauze pad in the palm of her hand, directly over the worst of the burn, and then she slowly wrapped her hand in the gauze bandage, securing the end with a strip of tape. When she was finished, she dumped the supplies back into the first aid kit, and then opened every cabinet in the kitchen until she found the empty space where the kit had been sitting before she used it. She meticulously wiped up the water that she'd splashed on the counter while she'd been treating her burn.

And then, when she was done stalling, she screwed up her courage and went back out to the living room, where her sisters were undoubtedly waiting to yell at her over her screw-up.

"-Piper, she's still new to the Craft."

"She nearly got you killed, Phoebe! Hell, she nearly killed you, herself."

Paige winced at the strident tone in Piper's voice, pausing at the doorway. She blinked back the tears that had sprung to her eyes at Piper's accusation, trying to swallow past the lump in her throat.

"None of us were perfect when we first started out as witches," Phoebe protested, and Paige managed a small smile. At least one of her sisters didn't seem to hate her.

"This never would have happened when Prue was alive," Piper shot back, bitterly, and Paige nodded, grimly. She'd been wondering how long it would take before that argument came about.

She also decided to make her presence known. She'd heard more than enough, and she just wanted to get out of there, and the only way to her car was through the living room to the front door.

_'Really need to work on that whole orbing thing,'_ she thought, as she stepped out into the living room.

Piper and Phoebe immediately stared at her, and from the horrified look on Phoebe's face, it was pretty clear that she knew Paige had overheard their conversation. Paige didn't let her say anything, though, crossing over to where she was standing to give her a quick hug to reassure herself that she was all right.

"Are you okay?" she asked, and Phoebe nodded, numbly. "I'm really sorry about what happened," she went on, without giving Phoebe time to speak. "I swear, it's never going to happen, again."

"Paige, it was an accident," Phoebe protested, weakly.

"And it won't happen again," Paige promised. "I have to get back to work."

Then, she darted out the front door before either of her sisters could say anything.


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's Note: **This chapter is dedicated to **Eillibsniknej**, **Sakurako Nagasaki**, **Dominus Trinus**, and **WyaRose** for being awesome and reviewing. And, please, please review. I can't know how I'm doing as a writer if you don't tell me what you think of the story. Plus, it just absolutely makes my day, seeing those reviews in my inbox. A happy writer is a prolific writer, right?

I forgot to mention in the last chapter, this fic is set between "Charmed Again" and "Hell Hath No Fury". So, pretty early in season four, if that helps explain some of Piper's behavior.

* * *

When she walked through the door of South Bay Social Services, Paige let out a quiet sigh of relief when she didn't see her boss lying in wait for her. Her relief was short-lived, however, when Cowan called out to her from his office, his voice carrying clearly across the clinic.

"That man doesn't miss anything, does he?" Ben Georges, one of the social workers, muttered when she passed him on the way to Cowan's office. "I swear, I had an easier time sneaking out of the house as a kid than getting anything past him."

"Me, too," Paige replied, softly.

Then, she squared her shoulders and knocked on Cowan's open door, entering the office when he grunted in a wordless response. She took the seat he'd indicated on the opposite side of his desk, waiting for the older man to finish what he was doing and look at her. She resisted the urge to squirm, uncomfortably, while she waited, feeling like she was seventeen, again, and that Cowan was her social worker again, rather than her boss.

The office was silent for several long minutes while Cowan flipped through the file on his desk. When he finally looked up, there was an inscrutable expression on his face.

"Correct me if I'm wrong," he said, mildly, "but your lunch is an hour long, isn't it?"

"Yes," Paige said, quietly.

"And it's been an hour and a half since you clocked out," Cowan continued, in that same, overly-calm tone. Paige almost wished that he would start yelling. Yelling was easier to bear than the quiet disappointment she could see in his eyes. "Would you care to explain why?"

"I – I had car trouble," Paige muttered, hoping that Cowan couldn't hear the tension in her voice.

She hated lying to her boss, but it wasn't like she could just come out and tell him that she'd been unavoidably delayed fighting a demon. She couldn't tell anyone, that was the problem. Ever since she'd found out that she was a witch, she'd been lying to everyone she cared about.

Her relationship with Shane had gone straight down the toilet. She'd begged off dinners with her aunt and uncle twice in as many weeks because she couldn't figure out what to tell them. Her previously-perfect record at work was tarnished because she kept getting called away on magical emergencies. And from the look on Cowan's face, today just might be the last straw.

"Car trouble," Cowan repeated, slowly, and Paige's heart sank at the stony look on his face. He didn't look like he believed her.

"I ran out of gas," Paige said, hating how the lies came easier and easier every time she told them. "I had to walk to the nearest station for a fill-up."

"You didn't see your gas gauge?" Cowan asked, and Paige bit back wince. Not only had she not seen her imaginary gas gauge, she also hadn't seen the trap she'd just walked right into.

"It's broken," Paige managed to force out, hoping that the words sounded natural. It wasn't completely a lie; her car was kind of a wreck, and the gas gauge got stuck on occasion. She tended to rely on the odometer when she drove, refilling her tank every two hundred miles to be on the safe side.

"What happened to your hand?" Cowan asked, and Paige blinked in surprise at the sudden, unexpected change of topic.

"I burnt it on the engine," Paige told him, as she moved her hand off the desk to cradle it in her lap. "Because of the gas gauge, I didn't know what was wrong with the car, and I thought it might have been something with the engine, so I popped the hood to take a look. I couldn't find anything, but I burnt my hand." The lies were just flowing like water, weren't they?

"Looks like you already took care of it," Cowan remarked, and Paige nodded.

"I've got a first aid kit in my car," she mumbled.

Cowan fixed her with a long, unblinking stare, and Paige wondered if she was about to be fired. Not that it was completely undeserved; she'd been splitting her focus the last couple of weeks, and her career had gotten the short end of the stick.

_'Looks like I'm failing on all fronts,'_ she thought, morosely, Phoebe's unconscious face flashing briefly through her mind. _'My boss is mad at me, Piper hates me-'_

Cowan pulled her out of her thoughts when he cleared his throat, and Paige snapped her attention back to the older man. He was still watching her with that blank expression on his face.

"These need to be run over to the police station," he said, suddenly, closing the folder that was sitting in front of him and adding it to a small stack of similar files. He shoved the pile across his desk until it was sitting in front of her. "Can your car make a trip across town?"

"Yeah," Paige said, nodding rapidly, as she scooped the files up before Cowan could change his mind. "I'll be back before you know it. I swear."

"You'd better," Cowan said, a mild tone in his voice.

Paige only nodded again, darting out the door with the files in her arms. She snagged her coat from where it was hanging on the back of her chair, shoving her arms into it as she practically ran to the door. Opening the door to her car, she dumped the files on the passenger seat and got in, starting the engine. The engine coughed a couple of times before it finally turned over, and as she was driving out of the parking lot, she noticed that the needle of the gas gauge was nearly on empty.

She could have sworn that she'd had at least half a tank that morning, but apparently the universe was going to make her lie to Cowan come true. But, she didn't have time to stop for gas, now; she could only hope that she had enough left in her tank to make it to the end of the day.

She got to the police station in about fifteen minutes. Going into the precinct, she glanced down at the sticky note that Cowan had put on the top of the files, and then she went over to the front desk.

"Hey, I'm looking for a parole officer named Mitchell," she told the desk sergeant. "I'm from Social Services."

"Down the hall," the sergeant told her, with a jerk of his head. "Third door on the left."

As if the man's words had been some kind of a summons, the door he'd indicated flew open with a loud crash as it slammed against the wall. A kid who couldn't have been more than thirteen or fourteen came sprinting out, heading for the front door. Paige dumped the files on the desk and moved to intercept the kid. Maybe rampaging demons still threw her, but a scared kid? That was something she knew how to deal with.

She grabbed the kid by the arms when he tried to run past her, spinning with his momentum and accidentally-on-purpose knocking him into the front desk. The kid grunted as the breath was driven out of him with the impact, and she pinned him to the desk with her arm when he tried to move back.

"Hey, calm down," she told the kid, who was still struggling against her hold. "Where do you think you're going, anyway?"

"Out of here," the boy growled, and Paige rolled her eyes.

"You're in a station surrounded by cops," she pointed out. "Exactly how far did you think you were going to go?"

The kid didn't answer, and Paige turned her attention to the cop, presumably Mitchell, who was approaching them.

"Nice tackle," he said, sounding impressed.

"I played football with the boys in high school," Paige told him. "Only girl on the team. I had to learn to keep up."

"But, you're tiny," the desk sergeant protested.

"I can take you down," Paige muttered under her breath, getting a smirk from Mitchell.

"I'll take our would-be escapee, now," he told her, and Paige passed the kid over to him. "Thanks, by the way. Henry Mitchell."

"Paige Matthews," she introduced herself, forgoing a handshake because the guy was still busy. "Those are for you," she went on, gesturing to the files on the desk. "From Social Services."

"More case files, probably," Henry sighed, as he picked the files up with his free hand. "Any surprises in here?"

"I don't know," Paige admitted, with a shrug. "I'm just the gopher. My boss didn't mention anything, though."

"Got a number I can call if I have any questions?" Henry asked, and Paige pulled one of her business cards out of her purse. "Oh," Henry went on, with a raised eyebrow, "this is your number. Well, saves me from having to ask."

"Oh, man," the kid groaned, before Paige could say anything. "You are _not_ flirting with this chick right now."

"First of all, Speed," Henry told the kid, "this _chick_ just saved you a lot of trouble, so say thank you. Second, shut up."

"How am I supposed to apologize if I have to shut up?" the kid muttered under his breath.

"You've got a smart mouth on you." Henry started in on the kid as he muscled him back down the hallway, toward his office, and Paige could hear him lecturing the boy until the door shut behind him, cutting his voice off.

Paige grinned to herself, the first time all day, and then she headed back to work.

The rest of the day passed uneventfully, and by the time her shift was over, Paige wanted to do nothing more than go home, curl up on the couch with an old movie and a big bowl of popcorn, and forget that the morning had ever happened. But, she couldn't do that. Not if she wanted her sisters to ever speak to her, again.

No, what she needed to do was become a better witch. The accident that morning, where she'd nearly killed Phoebe, could never happen again. She wasn't going to let it happen again.


	3. Chapter 3

**Author's Note: **This chapter is dedicated to my amazing reviewers, whose enthusiasm helped me pound out the rest of this chapter in one night – and convinced me to post it. I can't promise that all my reviews will happen this quickly - in fact, I can pretty much guarantee it. I will try to update as soon as I can, however.

* * *

Before she'd left work, Paige had done some research on the occult shops in the area and made a list of the most likely places to find the information she was looking for. So far, she was striking out.

The first two places clearly considered "occult" to be synonymous with "possesses hundreds of candles". The second store had actually caught fire – well, the curtains, at least. A discreet use of her new powers had gotten the curtains off the windows so that she could stomp out the flames – mourning the loss of a new pair of shoes in the process – and thankfully no one had seen her act.

The third and fourth shops had been nothing spectacular, and Paige had picked up a couple of likely-sounding books from each that she thought might further her education. But, her attempts to carefully ask about magic had failed. From the gum-popping teenager manning the front counter of one store, she'd gotten nothing more than a blank stare. From the other, a bubbly, vivacious woman who'd eagerly introduced herself as Marcy, she'd gotten a lecture on magic that had lasted almost fifteen minutes and contradicted everything she'd learned from her sisters so far. Paige had nodded politely in all the right places and escaped as quickly as she could.

The fifth shop had seemed to be the most promising. The proprietor was a young man with shaggy, blond hair and a Celtic knot tattoo peeking out from the hem of his short-sleeved tee-shirt. He'd actually been the one to initiate their conversation about magic, answering Paige's tentative questions with a broad, easy smile. And he hadn't been the least bit daunted when she'd snuck in a couple of questions about fighting and demons.

"I know all about demons," he'd reassured her, still smiling, and then he'd handed her a business card for a local drug rehab clinic. "They're very discreet," he went on, while Paige stared at him in disbelief. "They really helped me, and they can help you, too. You don't have to fight with those demons one second longer."

_'So,'_ Paige thought, as she sat in her car outside the last place on her list, drumming her fingers idly on the steering wheel, _'where, exactly, is the line between neophyte witch and rambling drug addict? Because I'd really like to never have that happen, again.'_

As she stared at the door to the unassuming storefront, she wondered if she was doing the right thing. Maybe she should go back to the Manor, throw herself on her sword, and her sisters' mercy, and beg them to teach her everything they knew. But, then she remembered the furious look on Piper's face, and she had a feeling that her oldest sister wasn't going to be in a welcoming mood.

She thought that Phoebe might be more welcoming, but things were still uneasy between the three of them, what with Paige being the odd man out, and the shadow of Prue's death still hanging over all their heads. And the last thing she wanted to do was inadvertently pit Phoebe against Piper, even in her defense, or to make Piper feel like she was being ganged up on. She still remembered the empty, hollowed-out feeling from when her parents had died, and how she'd clung desperately to her aunt and uncle as a source of support while pushing everyone else away. Piper and Phoebe were still leaning on each other in their grief, and Paige didn't want to do anything to mess that up.

Her mind made up, Paige got out of the car and started across the street to the store. There was no name on the storefront, but the battered sign hanging in the window listed palmistry and tarot reading as the owner's specialties. Paige slowly pushed the door open, hearing the melodic chime of bells suspended at the top of the door frame. The shop first looked empty when she stepped inside, but then an old woman, with a scarf tied around her head, stepped out into the main room.

"I'm sorry," Paige said, as she looked around the darkened store, "are you closing?"

"Not anymore," the woman replied, with a gentle smile as she approached Paige. "Welcome. I am Madame Theresa."

"Hi," Paige said, shaking the hand the woman held out to her. "I'm Paige."

"I know," Theresa said, and Paige raised an eyebrow in surprise.

"You do?" she asked. "Did you, um, did you read my mind?"

"Just your badge," Theresa said, gesturing at her belt, and Paige glanced down at her work badge still clipped to the waistband of her pants. She'd completely forgotten that she was still wearing it.

Snagging the badge off her belt, Paige stuffed it in her coat pocket, the elastic of the clip hanging out of her pocket. She took a seat at the low table in the center of the room that Theresa gestured to, folding her long legs underneath herself as she sat on the floor. She winced when her knee popped, and stared enviously at Theresa as the older woman lowered herself to the floor with a grace that she could only envy.

"Your hand, please," Theresa said, and Paige put her right hand, palm up, on the table. Theresa took her hand, her fingers tracing lightly over the creases in her palm. After a moment she glanced up at Paige, a small, sardonic smile on her face. "Didn't anyone ever tell you that all work and no play makes Paige a dull girl?"

"I haven't had a whole lot of time to play, lately," Paige commented, wistfully. "I've been kind of throwing myself into work, nonstop, the past while."

Theresa made a quiet noise in the back of her throat. She studied Paige's right hand for a while, and then she switched to her left, wordlessly. After a few minutes, she gently placed Paige's hand back on the table.

"I have to admit," Paige said, when the older woman remained silent, "you're making me a little nervous, here. What, am I dying, or something?" She punctuated her words with a nervous laugh, trailing off into silence when Theresa kept staring down at her palm.

"I have seen a choice in your future," Theresa said, abruptly, and Paige looked at her in surprise.

"O-kay," she said, slowly, drawing out the word as she tried to figure out what Theresa was getting at. "Um, what kind of choice?"

"Come with me, please," Theresa said, rather than answering, and without waiting for an answer, she stood up and headed into the back of the store.

Paige stood up, glancing between the curtain the older woman had disappeared behind, and the front door. The sensible part of her brain was shrieking at her to run as fast and as far as she could, that if she didn't, her sisters were going to be fishing her body out of the bay the next morning. The more adventurous part of her brain, the one that had convinced her to follow her sisters down this crazy magic path in the first place, wanted to follow the woman and see what she was talking about.

_'It won't hurt to take just a tiny look,'_ Paige thought, glancing toward the curtain, again, ignoring the part of her brain that was now practically screaming at her to get the hell out of there. _'Just one second.'_

Her mind (mostly) made up, Paige headed toward the back of the store. She pushed the curtain aside to find Theresa waiting for her, a mug of something cupped in her hands. She smiled at Paige, handing her the cup. Paige took the cup, glancing down at the dark liquid, and then she shot Theresa a quizzical look.

"What's this?" she asked.

"An innocent soul is in danger," Theresa said, another non-answer, and Paige resisted the urge to sigh.

"What do you mean?" she asked. "Who's in danger?"

"You are the only one who can save her," Theresa went on, undaunted by her questions. "That," she added, nodding at the potion, "will take you to where you need to go."

"And you expect me to just drink this?" Paige asked, incredulously.

"No," Theresa said, with a small smile. "There is something that I must give you, first."

"Hold it!" Paige barked, when Theresa moved to go past her. "I want some answers. Who the hell are you? Who's in danger? Why am I the only one who can rescue them?"

Theresa cocked her head to the side, as though thinking. "Which question would you like answered?" she asked, curiously.

"All of them," Paige snapped, getting annoyed. "Look, I don't know who you think I am-"

"I think you are a Charmed One," the older woman said, with an enigmatic smile. "I think you are a witch with potential beyond that which even you know. I think that you have a great destiny laid out before you."

"I don't believe in destiny," Paige told Theresa, and the older woman chuckled.

"He said that you would be stubborn," she commented, softly.

"He who?" Paige demanded, but Theresa wasn't listening to her.

"I cannot tell you that," Theresa said, sounding incredibly sad, like she regretted what she was saying. "Just as I cannot tell you where you are going, or who you must save. It is a quest that you, and you alone, must undertake."

"And you can't prepare me in any way for this?" Paige asked, huffing an impatient sigh when Theresa just shook her head. "Fine," Paige said, throwing her hands in the air in frustration, "I'll go get my sisters, and we'll be back to go save whoever needs saving."

"Your sisters cannot follow where you must go," Theresa interrupted her, and Paige stared at her in disbelief.

"You know that I'm a Charmed One," she started, and Theresa cut her off with an upraised hand.

"That is what you are, now," she said, gently. "Not what you can be."

"What does that even mean?" Paige demanded, in frustration. When Theresa still didn't answer, Paige glared at her. "I'm leaving," she threatened, backing toward the curtain, "unless I get some answers. And I mean now."

Theresa remained silent, and Paige whirled around and stalked toward the exit. She'd just shoved the curtain aside when Theresa called out to her in a strangled voice. Paige spun back around, thinking that the woman was hurt, somehow, and she found Theresa watching her with a mournful expression on her face.

"The one you must save is the one who came before you," she said, entreatingly, holding a hand out to Paige. "You are her only hope."

"You said her," Paige said, slowly, taking a cautious step toward Theresa. "The one who came before me. You – you're talking about Prue, aren't you? _Aren't you_?" she demanded, angrily, a hint of something like hysteria creeping into her voice, when Theresa didn't answer.

"I do not know her name," the older woman finally murmured, casting her eyes toward the ground. "She stood strong within the circle of three, in the place where you now stand."

Paige didn't fool herself for even a minute that Theresa was talking about her physical spot in the shop. No, she was talking about Paige's place in the Power of Three. There was only one person that she could possibly be referring to. The only problem was –

"Prue's dead," Paige said, flatly, ignoring the burning in her eyes at the words. "I was at her funeral."

"She lives," Theresa said, quietly. "And you must save her. Before it is too late."

"Why can't I get my sisters?" Paige protested, weakly, subsiding when Theresa simply shook her head. She glanced down at the cup that she'd forgotten she held in her hands, staring into the dark liquid. "Are you sure I have to do this alone?"

"You are the only one," Theresa told her, a solemn tone in her voice.

Part of Paige wanted to tell Theresa no, wanted to tell her to find someone else. Because wherever Prue was, it couldn't be any place good. If it was somewhere on Earth, she would have just made her way back to her sisters; from everything Paige had learned about her, she was too stubborn not to. Which meant that she was being held someplace that Paige didn't want to even think about. If Prue, strongest witch in their family according to both Piper and Phoebe, needed her rescue – Paige didn't necessarily want to see what she needed to be rescued from.

But, on the other hand, this was Prue they were talking about. She was the sister that Paige had never thought she'd get to meet. And not only would Piper and Phoebe never forgive her for walking away, she would never forgive herself.

Paige snorted, silently, thinking about what Theresa had said about having a choice. It was a choice in name, only; there was only one thing she could do.

"What do I have to do?" she asked, quietly.


	4. Chapter 4

**Author's Note:** Sorry for the long wait. Real life kind of got in the way, and then this chapter took a completely unexpected direction. Hopefully, it turns out to be a good direction. Only time (and a cooperative muse) will tell.

* * *

Theresa watched the young witch pace the length of the small office. Her shoulders were tense, and her head was bowed, like she was bearing the weight of the world. Her steps carried her two more times back and forth across the office, and then she stopped, glancing up at Theresa.

"The Underworld?" she asked, softly, a tremor of fear running through her voice, although Theresa could tell that she was trying to hide it. "You want me to go, alone, into the Underworld."

"Yes," Theresa confirmed.

"To rescue Prue, by myself," the young woman pressed, insistently. "With powers that I've only had for a couple of weeks, and that I just barely understand."

"Yes," Theresa repeated, calmly, and Paige sighed, digging the heels of her hands into her eyes in frustration.

"_Why_?" she asked, a plaintive tone in her voice. "Why me?"

And that was the one question Theresa couldn't answer. Not because she didn't want to, but because she didn't know the answer. She hadn't been given an answer to that particular question, when she'd demanded to know why this young woman, out of all who could have gone on a rescue mission. All he'd told her was that it must be Paige, and no other.

_'Damn you,'_ she thought, glaring into the shadows, where her mysterious accomplice was lurking. _'Damn you, she's so young. Don't make me do this. Don't make me send her down there on her own.'_

But, the man was silent, and Theresa hated him a little bit for not stepping up and taking this over. For leaving her to do his dirty work.

"There is no one else," she said, finally, and Paige sighed.

"What is this?" she demanded, incredulously. "Did the Elders set this up? Is this some kind of test?" Spinning on her heel, she paced anxiously away from Theresa, muttering to herself, although the older woman could still hear her. "That must be it. Leo said that I'm not even supposed to exist, but I do, and there's nothing they can do about that, now, so they're testing me. They want to see if I'm good enough to be one of their precious Charmed Ones-"

Theresa's heart went out to the young woman in front of her. She was clearly suffering for what Theresa was asking of her, and her inner demons were eating away at her self esteem. But, Theresa could see a steel core running through her, a strength that had helped her survive in the past. Theresa only hoped that she could draw on the strength when it counted.

"There is something I have for you," Theresa said, and Paige stopped her pacing and muttering to look at her.

Theresa moved over to the small table, removing the cloth-covered bundle from where it was resting on top. As she lifted the bundle, the silken cloth slipped away to reveal a shining, silver sword, and Theresa winced at the strident, screeching sound that assaulted her ears.

The sword had slipped free of its sheath, an inch of shining, silver blade gleaming in the low light, and Theresa used the silk cloth to hastily push the blade back into the scabbard. She didn't want to touch the sheathed sword with her bare hands, even for a second. She was afraid of the reaction.

Still cautious, she used the cloth to pick the sword up, carrying it over to where Paige was standing. She held the sword out to the young woman, who was staring at the blade as though entranced. She reached out slowly and took the blade from Theresa's outstretched hands, her fingers curling around the hilt. Then, she pulled the sword from the scabbard.

"Do you hear that?" she whispered, as the gleaming blade cleared the protection of the silk-lined scabbard. "It's singing."

Theresa had automatically tensed up when Paige had first grasped the sword, but in the young woman's hands, the grating scream had turned melodic. There was a soft whisper of silk as the sword cleared the edge of the scabbard, and then Paige held the naked blade in her hands.

"It's beautiful," she murmured, quietly. Breaking her gaze away from the weapon, she glanced over at Theresa. "Why would you give this to me?"

"It is meant for you," Theresa told her, a reassuring tone in her voice.

"I have no idea how to use this," Paige confessed, with a weak chuckle, and Theresa smiled.

"I think stabbing is the appropriate response," she quipped, and Paige's smile got marginally bigger.

"Anything else?" she asked. "I don't suppose you have some kind of magical "get out of Hell free" potion, do you?"

"Only one to get you in," Theresa told her, gesturing to the mug on the table, and Paige sighed, softly.

"I guess there's nothing else for it, then," she replied. Shifting the sword to her right hand, she picked the cup up with her free hand and raised it to Theresa in a toast. "_Salut_," she said, and then she downed the contents in a long swallow.

For a couple of seconds, nothing seemed to be happening, but then the young woman started to glow from within with a soft, golden light. The light got brighter and brighter, until Theresa had to shield her eyes, and when the light had faded, Paige was gone. Theresa sighed, closing her eyes and sending up a brief prayer for the young witch's safety.

"It's done," she said, flatly, without turning around. "I hope you are pleased."

"Thank you." Her mysterious accomplice stepped out of the shadows he'd been hiding in, staring at the spot where Paige had been standing. He was tall, with dark hair, and a battered leather jacket, and a sword at his waist that sang like Paige's. His face was blank and closed-off, and Theresa could read nothing in his eyes. "I believe I promised you a reward, for your help."

"I hope it is worth trapping a young woman in Hell," Theresa snapped at him.

"Your life, and the lives of your fellow Shuvani?" the young man offered. "A gypsy hunter is after the priestesses of your clans. He hasn't started hunting you, yet, but he will. Now, you can be ready for him."

Theresa stared at the young man. "What would you have done if I'd said no?" she asked. "If I hadn't helped you? Would you have just let us die?"

"I would have wiped the hunter off the face of the earth," the young man told her, "and you would have never been the wiser. But, then," he added, with a small smile, "you already know that, don't you?"

"Why did you ask for my help," Theresa demanded, "if you were going to go after the gypsy hunter, all along?"

"Why did you help me when you knew that the reward was useless?" the young man countered, stubbornly.

"I saw her path," Theresa admitted, reluctantly. "I saw what she is, what she may yet become. I saw you walk beside her," she added. "That is why I helped you."

The young man looked wistful. "We were good together, once," he said, his voice quiet. "I hope-"

"You love her," Theresa stated, when the young man trailed off, staring into the distance.

He nodded, a fond smile curving at his lips. "We met after I almost ran her over with my car," he replied. "She'd just been assigned as the social worker to one of my parolees, and we clashed on the case. She was stubborn, and she wouldn't give an inch. And she wound up being right."

"What happened?" Theresa prompted, gently. She'd already seen bits and pieces on her first reading of the young man, when he'd first walked into her shop, but she wanted to hear the full story from him.

"We were happy," the young man told her, a faraway look in his eyes. "Our twins had just celebrated their fifth birthday, and we were talking about having another baby, and then Phoebe had a premonition. Prue was alive; ten years, and she saw Prue alive. And she and Piper were so excited."

"Paige wasn't?" Theresa asked, carefully, sensing that they were entering dangerous territory with the young man.

"No, she was," the young man hastened to tell her. "But, she could tell that something was off with Prue, could see something that Piper and Phoebe couldn't. A decade in the Underworld can change anyone, even someone as strong as Prue, but Piper and Phoebe just couldn't see it. They wouldn't listen to Paige when she tried to warn them, and then it was too late. She died protecting them from someone they thought they could trust."

"You tried to change it," Theresa said, and the young man sighed, his shoulders slumping.

"The Elders wouldn't listen to me," he said, a bitter tone in his voice. "They kept telling me that it was destined, that nothing could be changed. That my wife, my _soul mate_, was gone. Forever. I couldn't live with that. So I didn't."

"You came back," Theresa commented.

"I came back," the young man confirmed. "It took me almost a year to find a way to do it, to save her. But, I finally found a way."

"Impressive, for a mortal," Theresa told him.

"I was highly motivated," came the calm response, and the young man ran his fingers lightly over the hilt of his sword. Theresa could hear the same, faint singing that came from the weapon she'd given Paige. The weapon that the young man had given her. "I didn't mean to come back this far," he confessed, after a long moment. "But, once I realized when I was, I couldn't pass up the chance I'd been given. I had the chance to save her, save everyone."

"You would circumvent destiny?" Theresa asked.

"Screw destiny." The young man pushed himself away from the counter he'd been leaning on, his eyes blazing with a fierce light. "I am tired of watching good people die because of destiny. If Death wants to take the woman I love, he's going to have to fight me every step of the way."

Theresa didn't bother with a reply. This young man wasn't the first one she'd seen challenge death, challenge fate. But, he was the first she'd met who was stubborn enough to succeed.

"You're going down there," she commented, but she didn't need an answer. "You're going down there, after her."

The young man gave her a smile that didn't reach his eyes, his hand curling around the hilt of his sword. "She's my life. Where she goes, so do I."

"Who are you?" Theresa asked, before the young man could disappear. "Tell me your name."

"Henry," he said, as he faded out of her shop, his voice trailing behind him. "Henry Mitchell."


	5. Chapter 5

**Author's Note: **The reaction that I've been getting for this story is amazing, and you guys rock.

* * *

One second she'd been staring at Theresa, and the next, she'd been blinded by a brilliant, white light. When the light faded and she could see again, Paige was no longer standing in Theresa's shop, but in a rocky cavern. It kind of reminded her of the time when she was a kid, and she and her parents had gone on vacation to Carlsbad Caverns.

_'If Carlsbad had blood on the walls,'_ she thought, grimacing as she touched a dark spot on a rock and her fingers came away sticky with dark blood.

"Focus," she told herself sternly, softly. "You're here to find Prue, and get the hell out of Hell."

The problem was, she didn't have the first clue how she was going to do that. She still couldn't get herself to orb in one spot on command, let alone orb herself and a passenger out of the Underworld. Not to mention, she had no idea how she was going to find said passenger in the first place.

"Think," she muttered under her breath, as she paced in a small path. "Think, damn it. What would Piper and Phoebe do?"

A second later, she realized that what Piper or Phoebe would do in her current situation wasn't really relevant. They had years of experience with the whole witch thing, where she had less than a month, and they knew more magic than she felt like she ever would. She didn't even know any spells, unless she counted the one to vanquish Shax, and since he was no longer among the living, she didn't think that it would be of much help.

_'Use what I have,'_ Paige thought, staring anxiously at the entrance to the cavern, in case a demon decided to come bursting in. _'What do I have?'_

She didn't have a whole hell of a lot. She had had exactly one spell in her arsenal, along with the ability to orb objects to herself, and the (sometimes) ability to make herself orb in one spot. And a really big sword, she reminded herself, glancing down at the weapon that Theresa had entrusted to her. Why, she had no idea, but it was probably the best shot she had, right then, and she wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth. Unfortunately, that was it.

_'Why couldn't I have Piper's powers?'_ she thought, despairingly. _'Why'd I have to be half Whitelighter-'_

And that was when it hit her. She was half Whitelighter. That was the key.

Last week, she'd been talking with Leo, and she'd asked him how he always seemed to know when her sisters were in danger, how he would know if she was in danger. He'd mentioned an ability he had as a Whitelighter, the ability to psychically sense and find his charges. He'd also mentioned how he thought she might, one day, manifest that and other Whitelighter powers.

_'Well, I guess one day is going to be today,'_ Paige thought, wryly.

She leaned against the wall behind her, ignoring the rocks poking her in the back, and slowly closed her eyes. She didn't want to, hating how vulnerable she was making herself, but she didn't think that she could concentrate, otherwise.

Eyes closed, slowing her breathing down, Paige tried to reach out with her mind. She felt ridiculous, standing there and furrowing her brow, but she wasn't going to give up. Her only other option was to wander aimlessly around the Underworld until she either found Prue (unlikely) or got herself killed (very, very likely), so it wasn't like she had much of a choice. So, she leaned against the wall, and she furrowed her brow, and she concentrated on Prue, nothing but Prue, until she had a headache, but she didn't give up.

And finally she thought that she could feel something happening. It started small, like an itch between her shoulder blades, and then the feeling grew in intensity. The itch grew stronger, and stronger, until it felt like she was being physically pulled out of the cavern.

"Gotcha," she whispered, feeling a surge of triumph run through her. "Hang on, Prue. I'm coming to get you."

She followed the pull down the dark corridors of the Underworld. She moved slowly, ducking into nooks and around corners whenever she heard someone coming. The last thing she needed was to get caught down here. She kept the sword clutched in sweaty palms as she moved, her grip tight on the hilt. She hadn't had to use the weapon, yet, and she wanted to keep it that way.

After what felt like hours, but was probably more like fifteen or twenty minutes, the insistent pull finally stopped. There was an entrance to a cavern up ahead, and she wasn't being compelled to move on, so she guessed that she'd just found what she was looking for. She'd found Prue.

Paige stepped into the entrance, and then she felt herself being abruptly stopped, like she'd just run into a wall. Blinking in surprise, Paige stepped back to see a glittering wall of energy about five inches in front of her nose.

"Because, of course this isn't going to be simple," she muttered, as she put her hand against the wall and gave an experimental push. Unsurprisingly, it didn't budge an inch.

"Okay," Paige went on, talking to herself, as she tried to keep her tone upbeat. "If I can't get in normally, I'll just magic it open." Laying her hand flat against the wall, feeling the energy tingle under her hand, she ventured, "Open Sesame?"

Yeah, she hadn't really expected that one to work. But, looking at where her hand was resting on the wall, seeing the way the crackling energy made the edges of her hand look blurry, she had an idea.

Orbing was energy, right? When she called things into the palm of her hand, they broke down into millions of photons of light. The same thing happened to Leo when he orbed, and presumably her, as well. And if something were energy, like, say, Prue inside the cavern, then it should be able to pass through the wall of energy in front of her. Theoretically.

_'Not going to know until I try,'_ Paige thought, staring at the wall. "Prue," she whispered, determinedly. "Prue, Prue, Prue-"

The air in front of her suddenly lit up with a swirl of bright orbs, and Paige took a tiny moment to celebrate her success. Then, the lights solidified into the face that Paige had seen in countless pictures around the Manor. Her sister.

"Prue," she said, and the woman's head whipped around, staring at her in disbelief.

"Who are you?" she demanded, her voice coming out in a hoarse rasp.

Paige considered the truth for all of two seconds before discarding the idea. Prue was obviously scared, and she'd been down in the Underworld for nearly a month, and the whole "long lost sister" story wasn't likely to go over well. Not until they were on safer ground. So, she went with a partial truth.

"My name is Paige," she said, soothingly, projecting the same calm she used when she was dealing with scared kids. "I was sent to find you, and bring you home."

Prue shook her head, her eyes wide with terror. "Who are you?" she demanded, again, backing up until she was pressed against the far wall, her hands clenched into fists at her sides.

"I'm a Whitelighter," Paige lied, quickly, but Prue didn't look convinced, her eyes flicking down to the sword that Paige was still holding. "Well, I couldn't come down here unarmed," she quipped, weakly, trying to dissolve some of the tension in the air. "Prue, I promise you, I am here to take you home."

"Prove it," Prue said, harshly, and Paige fought back the hysterical laugh that threatened to explode out of her.

Prove it? How the hell was she supposed to prove it? She'd known her sisters for less than a month, and she'd spent most of that cramming facts about magic, rather than their personal lives. What she knew about Piper and Phoebe, combined, could be counted on one hand, and Prue even less than that. How was she supposed to prove that she was what she was claiming to be?

"Your mom's name was Patricia," she started, slowly, desperately trying to think. "She died fighting a demon, died fighting to protect the Innocent."

She knew that wasn't good enough, could see the protest in Prue's eyes, but then she remembered something that she'd talked to Leo about, during their Whitelighter pow-wow. She only hoped that it would be enough.

"Her Whitelighter's name was Sam," she went on, gently, flashing back to the letters that Leo had shown her. "They were in love. It was against the rules, but they didn't care about the Elders' stupid rules; just like Leo and Piper didn't care. Your mom fell in love with her Whitelighter, and she wrote him letters when they couldn't be together. Letters that he kept after her death, that he kept until his death."

"How do you know about that?" Prue asked, some of the panic leaving her eyes.

"I told you, I'm a Whitelighter," Paige said, warming to her story. "I've been working with Piper and Phoebe since you – since you disappeared."

"My sisters," Prue demanded. "Are they okay? Shax didn't – he didn't hurt them, did he?"

"No," Paige reassured her, venturing closer, encouraged by the way Prue didn't flinch away from her. "Piper and Phoebe are fine, I swear. And I'm here to take you home to them, okay?"

"Okay," Prue finally agreed, and Paige sighed in relief as she dropped her arm around the other woman's shoulders.

"Come on," she told Prue. "Let's get out of here, huh?"


	6. Chapter 6

**Author's Note: **Wow, I did not intend for this much time to pass between chapters. Real life kind of smacked me in the face, and I've barely had time to breathe, lately, let alone write. All of you guys rock for sticking with me for this long.

* * *

Paige stayed in front of Prue as they crept along the corridor, her sword gripped tightly in both hands. Behind her, Prue was pressed as close to her as she possibly could be without actually climbing on top of Paige, holding onto her wrist in a painful grip to keep them from being separated.

"Can't you just orb us out of here?" Prue hissed, softly, as they paused at yet another junction, taking a moment to scan for danger and assess their options. "I mean, if you really are a Whitelighter-"

Paige firmly told herself that she wasn't insulted by the heavy skepticism she heard in her oldest sister's voice. After all, if she was in Prue's place, she would have been asking the same thing. And it was a perfectly legitimate question. Too bad she didn't have a perfectly legitimate answer.

"There's something blocking me from orbing out of here," she hissed back, tactfully leaving out the part where the something was her own inexperience.

Honestly, she didn't know why it hadn't occurred to her, earlier, that she was going to need to find some way to get out of Hell. Or, why it hadn't occurred to Theresa, come to think of it. The older woman had been ready with a potion to get her into the Underworld, why not one to get her and Prue out?

_'Unless we're not supposed to get out of here,'_ Paige thought, a cold shiver running down her spine.

She'd naively assumed that Theresa was on her side, especially after the older woman had told her about Prue, but what if she'd been wrong? What if rescuing Prue had never been a goal, at all? What if it had just been a plot to trap her down in the Underworld?

_'And then Theresa will go to Piper and Phoebe, and tell them how I'm trapped down here, and they need to save me, and then we'll all be trapped down here-'_

Paige abruptly shook herself out of the paranoid thoughts she was falling into, stopping in the middle of the corridor. Prue ran into her back before she managed to stop herself, giving Paige a curious look.

"We are getting the hell out of here," Paige declared.

"Finally," Prue muttered, under her breath, and Paige bit back a tiny smirk.

"Hang onto me," she told Prue, and the next second later, her sister was holding onto her hard enough to leave bruises. Paige clung just as hard, not wanting to risk losing Prue.

She closed her eyes in concentration, trying to remember the few times she'd orbed, trying to remember the feeling of disappearing, of being absolutely weightless.

_'Come on, come on, come on,'_ she chanted to herself, silently, hearing her thoughts echoed by Prue in a soft, continuous whisper.

For a few seconds, it didn't seem like anything was happening, but then she could feel a pressure building up inside her. At first it just felt like a really bad headache, but then the pressure spread to her entire body, growing and growing until she felt like she was going to explode. And then she did, and she was everywhere and nowhere, all at once, and she was flying –

And then she and Prue crashed painfully back down to the ground. Prue was curled in a miserable ball, arms wrapped tightly around her midsection. She was whimpering in pain, face screwed up in a rictus of agony, and she screamed when Paige touched her shoulder, flailing wildly in panic.

"Prue!" Paige called out, keeping her voice level as she moved back to keep from touching her sister, again. "Prue, calm down. You're safe, no one's going to hurt you. You're safe."

She kept talking, hoping that something would get through to Prue, and it eventually seemed to be working. Prue slowly uncurled from the fetal position she was in, slumping wearily on the ground. Her eyes were still tightly shut, tears leaking out to slide down her cheeks, and Paige dropped down beside her, risking a soft hand on her arm.

"Prue?" she ventured, gently. "Are you okay?"

"He's never going to let me go," Prue whispered, forcing her eyes open as she looked up at Paige. "I'll never escape. I'll never get to go home."

"I am going to get you out of here," Paige said, firmly, but Prue didn't seem to be listening to her.

"He's never going to let me go," she repeated, a broken sob in her voice.

"He, who?" Paige asked, confused.

"Me."

Even as Prue cringed away from the dark, silky voice, Paige whirled around to confront this new threat. She found herself facing a dark-haired man with a cruel smirk and a cold glint in his eyes. He was looking at Prue like she was some kind of insect, and Paige instinctively moved between her sister and the stranger.

"Who the hell are you?" she demanded, brandishing her sword."What do you want?"

"You can call me Avares," the demon informed her, still staring past her, to where Prue was huddled back against the wall. "Prudence, what do you think you're doing?"

"No – nothing," Prue stammered out from where she was hiding behind Paige, a tremor of fear in her voice. "I – I wasn't-"

"It looked like you were trying to escape," the demon went on, and something like a whimper was torn from Prue's throat.

Paige reached back for Prue, grabbing her sister's wrist and giving it a reassuring squeeze. She could feel a line of hard, cold metal under her hand, and when she risked a glance down, she saw a thin, silver band wrapped around Prue's wrist. When she looked back up, Avares was watching her, still smirking.

"My little insurance policy," he informed her, following the direction of her gaze. He made a move toward Prue, and Paige jerked out with the sword, smiling darkly when she caught the palm of his hand, making him bleed.

"Don't you touch her," she growled, softly. "I'll kill you-"

"Kill me, and she dies," Avares interrupted her, nodding at Prue. "Attempt to escape, and she dies. If she disobeys me – well, I think you can see where I'm going with this."

"What do you want?" Paige demanded, again.

"The eldest Charmed One is under my complete and utter control," Avares said, laughing darkly. "Gee, what could I possibly want with that? Although-" His tone turned thoughtful as he eyed Paige. "Scuttlebutt around the Underworld is that you're the new kid on the block. Living in big sister's shadow, as it were."

Paige turned around at a gasp, to see Prue staring at her with an expression of utter betrayal on her face. "Sister?" she echoed, softly. "You're my sister? "

"I was going to tell you," Paige interjected, quickly. "After we were both safe. I wasn't sure you'd believe me – wasn't sure you'd follow me out of here if you knew. I was going to tell you once we were safe."

Prue still looked confused. "But, how – Mom and Sam," she realized. "You're half Whitelighter."

Paige nodded, slowly, and then she jerked at the sound of applause from behind her. Avares was watching them, a wry smile twisting his lips.

"Such a touching reunion," he said, mockingly, his voice practically dripping with disdain.

Paige glared at the demon, still blocking his access to Prue. Avares still wouldn't tell her what he wanted, and she couldn't understand why she and her sister were still alive. He should have tried to kill them by now, and yet he just kept smiling that maddening little smirk at them. It was starting to creep her out.

"What do you want?" she demanded through gritted teeth. "And don't give me any of that cryptic crap, either."

"What do I want?" Avares mused. "I want a trade, little witch."

"What kind of trade?" Paige asked, suspiciously.

"I feel I've been cheated," Avares said, instead of answering her question. "When I purchased your sister's bond, I was assured that I would be receiving the most powerful of the Charmed Ones. What did I get, instead? A lemon, a reject, a powerless _hack_." He sneered, scornfully at Prue, who flinched away from his gaze.

"You want me to take Prue's place," Paige guessed, her voice flat.

"Exactly," Avares replied, smugly. "You want your sister back? Well, I want a replacement."

"No," Prue gasped, from behind her, and Paige gave her hand a reassuring squeeze.

"It's okay," she murmured softly, under her breath. Louder, she added, "What's to stop me from just orbing us out of here?"

"The same thing that was stopping you, before," Avares informed her. "The bracelet is spelled to cause the wearer immense pain if separated from me for too long. And even if the pain doesn't kill her, I'll simply track her down and kill her, myself. And then I'll kill the rest of your family, and I'll leave you for last, alive long enough to know that you could have prevented all of it." He raised an eyebrow, crossing his arms over his chest. "Your move."

"If I stay here," Paige said, slowly, ignoring Prue's choked cry from behind her, "you'll let Prue go? You'll take that damn bracelet off her, and let her go?"

"My word is my honor," Avares said, with a mocking bow. Paige clenched her fingers around the hilt of her sword, resisting the urge to go for his head, remembering what he'd said about Prue dying if he was killed. "Your soul for your sister's life," Avares said, as he straightened. "How can you possibly refuse?"

Paige swallowed hard, looking between the demon and her sister. Every self preservation instinct she possessed was screaming at her to just grab Prue and run, but she knew that it would never work. Avares would find them no matter where they tried to hide, thanks to the tracking spell on that damn bracelet. And even if she did have the power needed to orb them both out of Hell, Prue would never survive the trip. Avares would kill her without a second thought. She only had one option.

"I'll do it."

Avares smiled, a terrifyingly predatory expression. He reached out to Prue, grabbing her roughly by the arm and dragging her forward, making her cry out in panic. Paige snarled, stepping toward them, but before she could do anything, Avares had released her sister. Prue stumbled away from the demon, rubbing gingerly at her bright red, abraded wrist, and Avares held up the damning band of metal that had held Prue in helpless thrall for so long.

"Your turn," he said, a mocking tone in his voice as he held the bracelet out to Paige.

Paige forced herself not to flinch as she reached out to take the bracelet from the demon. The bracelet glowed brightly in her hands, the metal warming against her skin, and she felt a tingle of electricity running along her arm. When she slipped the bracelet over her hand, the metal tightened around her wrist. It wasn't uncomfortably tight, but it was snug enough that she wasn't going to be able to get it off. She looked up at Avares, who had a darkly satisfied look on his face.

"You didn't have to do that," Prue whispered, brokenly, and Paige looked over to see an absolutely shattered look on her older sister's face.

"I didn't have a choice," Paige told her. "What would you have done? Prue," she went on, when her sister remained silent, "it's going to be okay. I promise."

Prue just shook her head, tears welling in her eyes. Her lips were pressed into a tight line, her hands clenched into white-knuckled fists. She looked ready to attack Avares with her bare hands, and Paige put a hand on her arm, to stop her from doing something that would only get her killed. She wasn't about to lose her sister after just finding her, again.

"I kept my end of the bargain," she said, glaring at the demon. "Now, let Prue go. You promised."

"Did I?" Avares asked, sounding surprised, and Paige growled, stepping protectively in front of Prue, holding her sword up, defensively.

Avares simply shook his head, and the next second, Paige felt like she'd just been stabbed. A blinding white-hot pain shot out from the bracelet to encompass her entire body. She cried out in agony, crumpling to the floor with her arms curled around her stomach. The sword clattered to the rocky ground beside her.

"You lying son of a bitch," she ground out, as Avares stepped over her motionless body to get to Prue, pressed back against the wall in fear. "Prue, run!"

"Run where?" Avares said, reasonably, as Prue tried to get past him to get to Paige. "There's nowhere that I won't be able to find you, Prudence. I told you that you'd never be able to escape me."

He reached again for Prue's arm, and she darted away from his grasp with a whimper. At the same time, Paige tried to force herself to her feet, stretching a hand out to her sister in desperation. She had to get to her first, had to get Prue somewhere safe.

A second later, Prue was engulfed by a swirl of bright, white lights, and when the light cleared, she was gone. Paige slumped wearily back against the ground as Avares stared at the empty space in disbelief. Her eyes drifted closed, jerking open when she felt a spike of pain run through her body. Looking up, she saw the furious demon standing over her.

"Where. Is. She?" Avares demanded, biting the words off.

"I honestly have no idea," Paige told him. "She could be anywhere right now; I don't know."

An enraged look flashed across Avares's face, and she couldn't help it, she started laughing, helplessly. Tears filled her eyes, blurring her vision, and she choked on the hysterical sobs threatening to escape her throat. She couldn't afford to fall apart; not here, not now.

"I will find her," the demon threatened, and Paige stopped laughing long enough to look up at him.

"Not with me fighting you every step of the way," she promised, quietly, tears drying on her cheeks. "You'll never get your hands on my sister, again."

Avares stared down at her, his face completely unreadable. He twitched his hand, and Paige was overcome by wave after wave of sheer agony. She screamed, and screamed, and then the world went black…

* * *

When the light cleared, Prue found herself standing in the middle of nowhere. Well, in the middle of the road if she wanted to be exact, but considering that she couldn't see anything when she looked around, the middle of nowhere was equally appropriate.

Her first instinct was to call Leo to come and get her, but something was stopping her. Namely Avares. He hadn't been lying when he'd promised to find her, no matter where she went. She knew that the demon had the power to track her down; after this long, he didn't need that damn bracelet aiding him.

Prue knew that she couldn't risk going back to San Francisco, not with Avares' threat to kill her sisters still ringing in her ears. She wouldn't be the one to bring that monster down on her family. Not to mention that they'd need the Power of Three to vanquish him, and one-third of their trio was trapped down in the Underworld, under the demon's control.

Like it or not, Prue was powerless to do anything. If there was any chance to save her family from Avares, she needed to get Paige back, first.

Prue was jerked suddenly out of her musings by the sound of a blaring horn, and she jumped back, startled. A little red convertible went whipping by her, the driver shouting insults out the window as he passed by. She could feel her heart racing wildly as she stood on the side of the road, more worked up by the short incident than she wanted to admit, even to herself.

_'And that,'_ she thought, dismayed, as she waited for her racing heart to slow down, _'is the other reason I can't go home.'_

She'd spent so much time in the Underworld, living in fear and trying simply to survive, and it had changed her. The person she'd been before Shax would never have let Paige trade herself for her own safety. She would have fought tooth and nail to keep her sister safe, not just cowered uselessly in the corner every time the demon looked at her.

She'd become weak down in Hell, and it was one thing when she was alone, but now her weakness had condemned someone else to the same Hell. No, she couldn't risk going home when she couldn't even protect her family from the threats she'd be bringing straight to their front door. If she went back, now, she'd only be a burden on her family. And she couldn't do that to them.

Her mind made up, Prue started trudging along the side of the dusty road. She didn't know where she was going, but it was going to be some place far, far away from everyone she loved. She could at least protect them that much.

She'd been walking for a while, long enough for the sun to rise higher in the sky, when she heard the rumble of an engine coming up behind her. She moved further off the side of the road, wanting to avoid another incident like the one with the earlier driver, but she was surprised to hear the vehicle slowing down behind her. Stopping, Prue looked back to see a semi truck slowing to a stop beside her, and then the passenger door swung open. The driver, an older man with graying hair and a long, craggy face, leaned over to look at her.

"Need a lift?" he called out.

"Depends," Prue replied, warily."Where are you going?"

"Phoenix," the man told her. "Headed your way?"

"Yeah," Prue decided, after a moment. Phoenix wasn't as far away from San Francisco as she would have liked, but it was a start.

Grabbing the door handle, she pulled herself up into the cab. She shut the door, buckling herself in, and then she looked up to see the man watching her.

"Odin," he introduced himself, cracking a grin at the surprised look that must have flashed across her face. "I had odd parents," he explained.

"Melinda," Prue blurted out, after a moment. She wasn't going to give out her real name, not until she knew it was safe. "Melinda Johnson."

"Well, Melinda," Odin said, as he put the truck back into drive and started down the road, "where are you going?"

"I don't know," Prue admitted, staring out the window at the scenery that flashed quickly by. "Anywhere that's not California." She winced as the words sent a spike of pain lancing through her heart. The further down the road they went, the more it felt as if she was never going to see her family, again.

_'I miss you,'_ she thought, as Piper, Phoebe, and Leo's faces flashed quickly through her mind. _'I miss you guys, so much. I swear, some day I'm going to find a way home. And I'm bringing Paige with me. No matter what it takes.'_


	7. Chapter 7

**Author's Note:** I'm sorry that it took me so long to update, and I'm so grateful to everyone who's stuck with me all this time. You guys rock. On the upside, I hopefully found a way to get rid of writer's block (expect an update to "Thicker Than Water", next), and this chapter is completely different, and better, than my original plan for this story.

* * *

Paige woke up on a hard, cold stone floor. Her head was pounding, and her entire body hurt. She felt like she'd just been hit by a truck.

_'What the hell happened to me?'_ Paige thought, as she slowly pushed herself up into a sitting position.

The sound of metal scraping on rock caught her attention, and Paige looked down to see a thin, metal band around her wrist. Memories came rushing back. Prue, Avares, trading her freedom for her sister's life, Prue escaping when Avares tried to take her captive, again...

_'Please be safe, Prue,'_ she prayed. _'Please, please be safe.'_

She wanted nothing more than to orb out of Hell and find her sister, but Avares' threat rang clear in her mind. She had no idea if he'd been telling the truth when he'd promised to track down and kill her family if she tried to escape, but she knew she couldn't take the chance. She had to protect them, no matter what.

And wasn't that strange, being so protective of people she barely even knew? She could count the times she'd talked to Piper and Phoebe on one hand, and their conversations had almost exclusively been about demon vanquishes. She was fairly certain that Piper hated her, and resented her presence in their lives. And nothing she did seemed to convince Piper that she wasn't trying to replace Prue.

Yet, she was the only thing that stood between Avares and her sisters, and she'd seen what he'd already done to Prue, and she wanted to keep him from getting his hands on Piper and Phoebe. She'd do anything, even if it meant staying down here in Hell.

Resigned to her decision, Paige looked around at her surroundings. She was in a nondescript cavern with the entrance blocked by a shining wall of pure energy. Probably not the same place she'd rescued Prue from; her captor wouldn't want Prue to be able to bring Piper and Phoebe back to break her out. The sword Theresa had given her lay a short distance away, the blade marred by a burn mark in the shape of a handprint. Paige felt a moment of dark joy as she imagined a matching burn on the demon's hand. She hoped it hurt.

Paige tried to stand, but her legs shook too much to support her weight, and she sank back down to the rocky ground. She dragged herself across the ground to lean against the wall, snagging the sword and dragging it along with her. Slumping back against the wall, Paige pulled the weapon across her legs. She knew she couldn't kill Avares, but she wasn't going to make it easy on the demon when he eventually came for her.

She still hurt, everything screaming in protest every time she moved, and pulling herself across the ground to the wall had been exhausting. Paige closed her eyes, letting herself drift. She had no idea how long she'd been sitting there when a bright light filled the cavern, piercing her closed eyelids and pulling her out of the light doze she'd fallen into. Opening her eyes, she saw a familiar face standing in front of her.

"Henry Mitchell?" she asked, in disbelief, as she stared at the cop she'd met earlier that day.

Except that he didn't look like the same man she'd met that afternoon. He was older, with scars on his face that hadn't been there before. He had a sword strapped to his waist, and as he drummed his fingers on the hilt of the weapon, she saw a wedding ring on his left hand. She was fairly certain he hadn't been wearing one that morning, or she never would have flirted with him.

"Come on," Henry said, briskly, holding a hand out to her to pull her to her feet. Paige accepted without thinking about it, leaning against the wall for support once she was standing. "Let's get you out of here."

"What?" Paige asked, staring at him in confusion. "No. I can't."

"I'm sorry," Henry snarked. "Do you have another, more pressing engagement? Because, we could wait - oh, no we can't. _We're in Hell_!"

He shot her an incredulous look, like he couldn't believe they were even arguing about it. Paige crossed her arms over her chest, glaring at him.

"I can't leave," she told him. "My sisters will die if I do."

"You're going to die if you stay down here," Henry insisted, angrily. "Look, I'm trying to rescue you, here, but you're not being very cooperative."

"Who the hell are you?" Paige demanded, barking out a harsh laugh. "How do I know I can even trust you? Why did you come after me?"

Something dark and bitter flashed briefly across Henry's face. "Because I'm the reason you're down here in the first place," he said, his mouth twisted into an unhappy grimace.

"You're telling me that you kidnapped Prue?" Paige asked, wrapping her fingers around the hilt of her sword. Maybe she couldn't hurt Avares, but if this guy had hurt Prue, he was fair game. And she really wanted to hit something right now.

"No!" Henry protested, looking offended that she'd even suggested the idea. "God, no. Paige, I could never hurt your sisters. Even Prue. But," he added, looking faintly guilty, "I was the one who told Theresa to send you down here."

"You?" Paige echoed. "I repeat, who the _hell_ are you?"

Henry's eyes twitched away from hers as he looked anywhere but at her. "I'm trying to save you," he finally said, but Paige shook her head.

"That's not an answer," she said, flatly. "You say you're trying to save me, but then you tell me you're the reason I'm down here in the first place. I don't know who you are, or what you want, and you won't give me a straight answer. Give me one reason I shouldn't run you through, right now."

"Because I lov-" Henry's eyes widened as he cut himself off, mid-word, but Paige had heard enough.

"Love," she said, softly, and Henry nodded, slowly. "Might I remind you that we just met today, and that we've known each other for all of two minutes? I think that's early for anyone to be throwing around the L word."

"I've known you a lot longer than two minutes," Henry told her, and Paige resisted the urge to demand a further explanation. Henry looked like he was fighting with himself over giving her an actual answer, for once. "I'm from the future," he finally admitted, reluctantly.

Paige's first instinct was to protest that it was impossible, but she bit the words back. After all, it wasn't too long ago that she would have said that magic, witches, and demons were impossible, but look at her, now. Who was she to say that time travel couldn't happen?

"You're from the future," she repeated, carefully, and Henry nodded, the expression on his face somewhere between hopeful and uneasy. "So, when we met this morning-" she started.

"That wasn't me," Henry interrupted her, and Paige shot him a surprised look. "Okay, yeah, it was kind of me," Henry corrected himself, quickly. "My past self."

"There's two of you running around?" Paige asked in confusion.

"I've been careful about not being found out," Henry replied. "I've got too much to do to raise suspicions."

"Doing what?" Paige demanded. "If you're from the future, did you come back to change the past?" It was a bit cliché, but it was the only thing she could think of. Why else would someone travel through time?

Henry looked conflicted, again, but Paige just crossed her arms stubbornly over her chest. She was going to get the answers she wanted, no matter how long it took. It wasn't like she had anywhere else that she could go.

"I came to save you," Henry finally answered, twisting the wedding ring around on his finger.

"Save me," Paige repeated, and Henry nodded. "Save me?" She hated the plaintive tone in her voice, the way her words shook as she spoke, but she couldn't imagine any good scenarios that involved that outcome. "Save me from what?"

"I can't tell you that," Henry protested, and he shook his head when she tried to speak. "No. Look, you weren't even supposed to know that I was here. You were supposed to rescue Prue, and the two of you would go back home, and then some time in the future, you'd meet my younger self, and you'd fall for his wit and charm, and you'd live happily ever after. I didn't think this would happen; you weren't supposed to be in any danger." He looked furious with himself, like he blamed himself for Paige getting taken prisoner.

"What can you tell me?" Paige asked.

"Nothing," Henry insisted. "Paige, the only reason I even came here was to get you out of here."

"And I told you, I can't," Paige reminded him. "Avares will kill my sisters if I try to escape."

"We'll kill him, first," Henry promised, but Paige shook her head.

"See this?" she asked, brandishing the metal band around her wrist. "This is what he was using to keep Prue under control, and now me. He's got the damn thing tied to him, somehow. And if he dies, I'll die."

"What if we take the tracking bracelet off?" Henry asked. "No tracking bracelet, no way to find you once we leave. We can go after Prue, get back to Piper and Phoebe, and the four of you can wipe this son of a bitch off the face of the earth."

Paige held up her right arm, showing Henry the band around her wrist. Henry took her hand in his, producing a pocket knife that he flipped open, carefully sliding the blade between the metal and her skin. He levered the blade up, but he didn't do anything more than scratch the bracelet and leave a bruise on the back of her hand.

"It's too tight," Paige finally told him, and Henry sighed in frustration as he pulled the knife away from the bracelet and pocketed it. He kept his grip on her hand, his skin warm on hers.

"Great," Henry growled, under his breath. "So, we can't kill him, you can't leave this godforsaken hellhole, this damn bracelet won't come off-" He scrubbed a hand over his face, tiredly. "I'm all for hearing an Option C, right about now."

"Take my hand off," Paige suggested, getting a shocked look from Henry. "I'm serious," she insisted. "If we can't get the bracelet off my wrist, we'll take my wrist off."

Henry looked at her like she'd lost her mind. "Are you crazy?" he demanded.

"I'd rather live without a hand than be Avares' prisoner for the rest of my life," Paige told him. "If we do it quick, and you get me to Leo so that he can heal me, I think I'll be okay. Look on the bright side," she added, wryly, in a weak attempt to lighten the mood, "he could have made it a necklace."

Henry chuckled, a fond look on his face. "I knew there was a reason I fell in love with you," he remarked, clearly without thinking about it.

A second later, grief flickered across his face and he started twisting the wedding ring on his left hand. Pain shone in his eyes when he looked at her, and Paige wondered if he was really seeing her, or the wife he'd lost in the future.

"You're pretty charming, yourself," Paige admitted, getting a small smile out of him.

"Told you so," Henry quipped, lightly. "Okay, lay down with your arm out to the side. I don't want to take the chance that I'll hit something other than your wrist."

Paige laid down on her stomach, burying her face in the crook of her elbow as she extended her right arm. She could hear Henry moving as he knelt down beside her, pulling his sword out of the scabbard. He rested her hand on her back in a brief moment of reassurance.

"This is going to hurt," he warned her, and Paige gave a short laugh.

"I wasn't expecting rainbows," she muttered. "Let's get this over with, okay?"

Henry's hand disappeared from her shoulder, and then she heard the air whistle as he sliced down with his sword. She braced herself for the pain, but instead there was a blinding flash of light and a loud, ringing sound like someone had just struck a bell. And when she looked over, her arm was intact, the bracelet still snug around her wrist.

She sat up to see Henry picking himself up from the far side of the cavern. Blood seeped from a gash on the side of his head. He'd lost his grip on his sword, and when he picked it up, Paige could see scorch marks spiderwebbed along the length of the blade.

"Plan C is out," Henry told her, and then they both froze at the sound of distant footsteps. "And I think I just alerted the demon that you're not alone."

"Get out of here," Paige hissed, panicking at the thought of Avares getting his hands on Henry.

"I'm not leaving you behind," Henry protested, hotly.

"Get out!" Paige insisted. "Look, you can warn my sisters, ride to my rescue later. Just get the hell out of here. Please!"

"I'm going to come back for you," Henry promised, and then he disappeared in a bright flash of golden light.


	8. Chapter 8

**Author's Note: **The plot bunnies have hijacked the story, again, and now I have no idea where it's going.

To anon: Yes, your reviews are getting through. The site started allowing authors to moderate anon reviews, and the authors have to go in and approve each one, personally.

And to the guest who was wondering about Prue's behavior: Prue wants nothing more than to protect all of her sisters, Paige included, but she's just escaped captivity in the Underworld, and she's not thinking straight. I'll be going into Prue's time in the Underworld in more detail in the next chapter.

* * *

Paige dragged herself back to the wall opposite the cavern entrance, closing her eyes and feigning unconsciousness. She watched the shining shield warily through slitted eyes. A few seconds later, the shield disappeared long enough for Avares to stroll into the cavern, and then it snapped back into place behind him. He crossed to where she was sitting, and then he kicked her hard in the ribs. Her eyes flew open from the shock and she stifled a pained cry, glaring up at the demon.

"What do _you_ want?" she demanded, mulishly, as she climbed slowly to her feet.

"Oh, good," the demon sneered, "you're awake."

"What do you want?" Paige repeated.

"I have a job for you," Avares told her. Seeing her suspicious look, he added, "Oh, don't worry, it's not going to be hard. All you have to do is not die."

"Oh, is that all?" Paige mocked him, and then she doubled over, groaning in pain as he shot a quick spike of energy through the bracelet. "Bite me," she growled, when she straightened back up.

"I like that spirit," Avares told her, grinning. "It'll serve you well when I send you out on assassinations."

"You think I'm going to kill for you?" Paige asked, unable to hide the disdain in her voice.

"Once we're done with your training, of course," Avares replied. "Training that starts now, I might add."

"What kind of training?" Paige asked, guardedly. "And what is that?" she demanded, when she noticed the crossbow in his hands. "What, are you going to shoot me with that thing?"

"Eventually," Avares said. When her eyes widened, he scoffed. "Don't tell me you don't recognize a Darklighter's crossbow?"

"What's a Darklighter?" Paige asked, and the demon stared at her in shock for a moment before bursting into laughter.

"This is too good!" he crowed, happily. "The Charmed Ones are supposed to be so strong, so _smart_, yet they let their little half-breed bastard go wandering around without any idea about the monsters that walk out there in the world. Well, allow me to enlighten you."

Avares hoisted the crossbow higher in his arms, grinning smugly down at her. He paced a short path in front of her as he talked.

"Darklighters are the only beings in existence capable of killing Whitelighters," he began. "Fallen angels, to begin with, and then they began corrupting and converting humans to increase their numbers. They had no choice, if they wanted to stand a chance against you disgusting little do-gooders up in the Heavens."

"I'm sorry," Paige broke in, "do you expect me to feel sorry for the demons who want to kill me?"

"Don't interrupt," Avares scolded, mildly, punishing her with another burst of pain from the bracelet. "It's rude. Now, the reason that Darklighters are so dangerous to your kind is that they've developed a potion capable of killing Whitelighters. It suppresses your self-healing ability and spreads a poison through your veins that slowly, painfully destroys you." He smirked. "I'm told it feels like burning from the inside out."

Paige's head was swimming as she tried to process everything she'd just learned. Not to mention trying to figure out what was the truth, and what was the demon just trying to scare the crap out of her.

"I – I don't have a self-healing ability," she protested, latching on what seemed to be the most important part of his little tale.

"You'd better hope that you develop one," Avares told her. "Otherwise, this little experiment is going to be over very quickly."

"What experiment?" Paige asked, and Avares brandished the crossbow at her.

He freed the bolt from where it was notched, running his fingers over the smooth shaft. A drop of liquid rolled off the tip of the bolt to splash on the ground.

"It would be inconvenient for me if you got yourself killed by a Darklighter the first time I sent you out," he told her. "So, you're going to become immune to their poison. We'll start with a low dose, to begin with. Give me your arms."

Paige stared at the demon, her arms still crossed over her chest. Avares huffed an exasperated sigh.

"This is going to happen," he told her, "and you have no choice in the matter. And, even if you somehow manage to survive, this is going to be very unpleasant for you. You can make things easier on yourself if you don't fight me. Now, give me your arms."

Paige glared at Avares for a moment, and then, grudgingly, held her arms out. She forced herself not to wince when Avares dragged the tip of the bolt lightly over her arms, blood welling up in its wake. For a moment, all she felt was the pain of the scratches in her arms, but then the burning started.

When she was six, her best friend, Glenn, had dared her to lick an exposed wire. Every muscle in her body had seized up, her heart had almost exploded out of her chest, and her parents told her later that she'd been dead for two minutes. It was the most pain she'd ever felt in her life.

The Darklighter's poison was so much worse than that.

Avares hadn't been lying when he'd described it as burning from the inside out. Every nerve ending in her body was on fire. She opened her mouth to scream, but all that came out was a whimper. She collapsed, curling into a tiny ball on the ground.

"I'll be back in a couple of hours," Avares told her, his voice oddly distant through the sound of her heart pounding in her ears. "If you're still alive, we'll proceed to the next step in your training."

Whistling, he strode out of the cavern, leaving Paige alone. She stared after his shadow as it disappeared behind the shield, and then dropped her head to the rocky ground. Closing her eyes, she tried to ride out the waves of agony coursing through her veins. It was getting harder and harder to breathe.

_'I don't want to die,'_ she thought, desperately. _'I want to live. I want to get out of here and see my sisters, and Dave and Julie, and Mr. Cowan and everyone at work, and Henry, again.'_

According to Avares, there was an easy way to insure that. All she had to do was tap into her inner Whitelighter and heal herself.

_'All I have to do is not die,'_ Paige thought, suppressing a hysterical laugh. _'These things are specifically designed to take out fully-trained Whitelighters; what the hell chance do I have?'_

Not much, not that she could see. She didn't know if she even had a healing ability, let alone how to make it work. And she was scared. So, damn scared. She wanted nothing more than to have someone swoop in and save her.

But there was no one coming. Prue was gone, hopefully somewhere safe. Piper and Phoebe probably didn't even know she was missing. And she'd sent Henry away to keep him from getting hurt. She had to save herself.

In college, one of her psychology classes had covered the concept of guided imagery. It was used for mental problems, not physical, but maybe she could use it to activate her latent powers.

Paige forced herself to take slow, deep breaths. She imagined a river rushing over her, dousing the flames that licked at her nerves, imagined a stream flowing through her veins, diluting the poison that crept through her body. She focused on the image, only on that, single image.

And slowly, so slowly, the pain started to recede. She could breathe a little bit easier. She was by no means healed, but she thought that maybe it was starting to work. Her stomach spasming a second later made her doubt herself. But, the pain wasn't as bad as it had been before. Maybe it was possible for her to heal herself; maybe being half-Whitelighter made it possible.

"Okay, I tried to warn your sisters, but they weren't at the house – Paige, what the hell?"

Paige opened her eyes, rolling onto her back to see Henry standing over her with a concerned expression on his face. She tried to give him a reassuring smile, but it was clear that he wasn't buying it. He knelt down next to her, hand on her shoulder.

"What happened?" he asked, and Paige choked out a weak laugh.

"Avares is teaching me to conquer my weaknesses," she joked, as the laugh turned into a hoarse cough. "Today, we're working on Darklighter poison."

"Bastard poisoned you?" Henry demanded, his eyes dark with barely-leashed fury.

"Apparently, it's for my own good." Paige burst into another coughing fit, curling into a ball.

When she was done coughing, she relaxed enough to realize that Henry was sitting on the ground beside her. Without thinking about it, she rested her head in his lap, feeling his fingers card gently through her hair.

"Avares thinks that, if I'm motivated enough, I can learn to heal myself," she went on, quietly. "Must be working, 'cause I'm not dead, yet."

"Darklighter poison takes a while to work," Henry muttered. "I had to see you at the end-" He trailed off, his voice choked up. Paige glanced up to see him fighting back tears.

"Is that how I die in the future?" Paige asked, quietly. "A Darklighter's arrow?"

Henry sighed, nodding wordlessly. He reached out to grab her hand, and Paige squeezed his fingers as hard as she could. He smiled down at her, tremulously.

"I don't want to lose you, again," he whispered, his voice breaking on the words.

"I'm not going anywhere," Paige promised. Another spike of pain shot through her, and she gripped Henry's hand, trying to ride it out. "I'm not going to let this son of a bitch beat me. Not like this."

"Can I do anything to help?" Henry asked.

"Stay with me?" Paige asked, quietly. "For a little while?"

"I'm not going anywhere," Henry reassured her. "I'm not going anywhere."


End file.
